Peter Beinart was motivated to cry out to Americans about the occupation when he saw a shocking video of a Palestinian being arrested at his farm near Hebron for insisting on his rights to village water.
Well it's two years after that video. And here is another, from last month, shocking in its bald exposure of the humiliations of Palestinians, inflicted by Jewish soldiers acting in my name and Beinart's name.
A shepherd with a crooked staff insists on his right to graze his sheep on village lands near the settlement of Otniel. He is accompanied by Israeli and international activists, god bless them. The soldiers run him off.
You will see the shepherd getting angry, as he should get angry, at about minute 3. The man has nobility. (He is facing the same blank authority that Jews faced in the Pale of Settlement)
You will see the officer explaining that the settlers fear terrorists at minute 7:30 or so. And this is why the shepherd must not come too close. On his village lands.
This is ethnic cleansing before your eyes. It is the reason that so many despair of Partition, it hasn't worked. There is one authority between the river and the sea, and the battle is to give the subject people their rights.
From Ron, the Brit in the video, writing to his community back home:
"Last Saturday (March 10th) I was in the South Hebron hills again with
Ta'ayush (the Jewish/Arab Partnership). A large group of activists
went to the village of At-Tuwani but I was assigned to a group of four
which was sent to the tiny community of Um-el-Amad. Our task was to
accompany local Palestinian shepherds as they took their flocks to
graze on privately-owned Palestinian land.
Our presence there was asked for because earlier in the week two
shepherds had been kidnapped by the Israeli military, taken to the
nearby settlement of Ot'niel and beaten up. Their 'crime' ? - they
were too close to the settlement, even though they were on their own
land.
The video was filmed by Ta'ayush activists.
Just by way of explanation, the Israeli soldiers appeared a short time
after we arrived at the grazing areas, alerted by the settlement
security officer. The senior soldier was very aggressive and when the
shepherd refused to leave his land he told us we were detained. He was
obviously eager to arrest us, but only the police can arrest Israeli
citizens and internationals.
He then phoned the Israeli police who arrived 15 minutes later. The
senior police officer was much more reasonable, aware no doubt that we
were on privately-owned Palestinian land and there quite legally. (I
guess that he thought the idea of arresting us would mean lots of
paperwork for no real reason.) At one point he took the aggressive
soldier to one side ,arm round his shoulder. Shortly afterwards the
soldiers left , disconsolately, only to be replaced a few minutes
later by two more, one of whom was a more senior officer.
The officer asked us to move 100 metres away from the settlement
perimeter, explaining that his soldiers couldn't see us from the
watchtower ! As we were on Palestinian land and no security threat, we
refused. He then left the scene as did the police. Our unjustified
detention was over.
It was a small victory but without the presence of Ta'ayush, I
suspect the shepherds would have been expelled from their own land."
Jesus had a parable in the Bible where he compared himself to a Jewish soldier with an M16. In it he said that god is like a settler who tends to his paranoia.
Moses came down from the mountain of Sinai with 2 commandments
Take the land
Forget everything else to do with morality
seafoid,
I like your parody. You should expand on it. Write a play and have it performed. Seriously.
“A shepherd with a crooked staff ”
Pure orientalism.
your faux concern for correct framing is noted. and this doesn’t offend you in the least:
because earlier in the week two shepherds had been kidnapped by the Israeli military
when internationals are not there the iof act with impunity.
OT, interesting paragraph from Jennifer Nelson, The Role the Dutch Reformed Church Played in the Rise and Fall of Apartheid:
If I understand him correctly, Peter Beinart is calling for a boycott of products made in the Occupied Territories in a new interview with the German magazine Stern: “Grass untergräbt seine Argumente” ["Grass Undermines His Own Arguments"]:
Israeli’s doing this in my name. All of our names and with US taxpayer money. Our dear friend Art Gish lived with Palestinian shepherds year after year for close to two decades. Writing about the stories and Israeli soldiers he went up against. Too bad some people have to see this Israeli brutality and humiliation of the Palestinians to believe it has been going on for decades. But as I have said before better late than never. Better late than never. Call your Reps demand that aid to Israel be completely cut off. They need to hear from you
“It was a small victory but without the presence of Ta’ayush, I
suspect the shepherds would have been expelled from their own land.”
No doubt
Art/Palestinian Shepherds
link to amazon.com
CPT and the Palestinian shepherds
link to books.google.com
One great thing is all of the visual documentation of illegal arrest and harassment
Here is what generally takes place
link to youtube.com
Getting out there
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
Watch this Israeli army prick
link to youtube.com
“Not in my name” gets more and more resonance. Here, what is noteworthy (in a way) is that Zionism is based on the idea that Jews will go where they will be safe, and here they are going (to a place international law forbids them to be) where they feel UNSAFE and are thereby required to — once again — force Palestinians off their land. HAD THEY NOT EXPANDED IN 1967, this latest eviction would not have been possible. It is expansion in order to evict (or from sheer cussedness), not in order to find safety.